A Small Reprieve
by Samantha-Girl Scout
Summary: Mai eavesdrops on a conversation between Naru and their newborn daughter. One-shot.
"I'm coming," a soft masculine voice said to Mai's right. She heard the soft sounds of someone padding across the hospital floor away from her and towards an increasingly familiar whimper.

"Shh," The male voice said quietly in an attempt to soothe the child. The steps stopped and, moments later, the whimpering began to quiet as well. Mai tried opening her eyes, but she was more exhausted than she had ever been before. After hours of labor, a complicated birth, and then the non-stop care of her daughter, she couldn't muster up the energy to do so. Especially when it appeared as though her husband was taking care of the situation.

Instead, the brunette made the decision to keep her eyes closed and rest. This was one of the first times that Naru had interacted with their newborn, Ellen. She was slightly intrigued by how he would interact with their daughter when he believed that no one was paying attention. So, with this in mind, Mai allowed him to believe that she was still asleep and eavesdropped on his one-sided conversation.

"You gave us quite a scare earlier," he continued in slight chastisement. It figured that Naru would scold the child early on, but did he really have to within their baby's first week? "I know it truly isn't your fault, but I had hoped that you wouldn't inherit that particular trait from your mother."

Mai felt a familiar blend of anger and amusement fill her at his words. Ever since their early ghost hunting days, Naru had chastised her for getting into trouble on cases. They had fought, both seriously and in jest, over the matter too many times to count. She no longer became seriously angered over his concern, but she still wished that he would let it go. It certainly wasn't her fault that she had bad luck. Most of the time.

"That being said, I do hope that you will mostly take after your mother. She is quite kind, and, though it can sometimes land her in trouble, it is one of her most admirable qualities. It's quite astounding, really, how much faith she has in humanity as a whole."

Mai felt her heart warm slightly as she heard the sound of rustling fabric and the newborn gurgled. Mai peeked an eye open to see Naru gently picking the child up from the crib that she had been laying in. She closed her eyes again when she saw him turning to walk to a rocking chair a few steps away. She heard the echo of feet on the linoleum tile before she heard him settle, a small squeak sounding. She was tempted to open her eyes again, but she kept them shut in an attempt to not ruin the moment. There was silence for a time punctuated occasionally by the soft shuffling of the chair moving back and forth over the ground and a small sneeze from their daughter. Many minutes elapsed before he continued.

"You see, humans aren't always the kindest of creatures. They can be quite selfish and violent when they don't get what they want. And, unfortunately, they can't always be reasoned with. I've seen that side of humanity too many times to believe in the brighter side of humanity as strongly as your mother does. Yes, I know, she has seen quite a bit of it as well, but somehow she can see past it," Naru paused for a moment, the sound of the chair ceasing as well, before continuing, . "I hope that you won't become as jaded as I have. I hope that, instead, you will inherit her kindness."

Mai had to resist sighing heavily. This was yet another subject that they disagreed on. Despite his pride and occasional vanity, the man tended to sell himself short when it came to his own humanity. It seemed as though he couldn't see where 'faith in humanity' overlapped with what was 'most logical while solving a case.' She had tried explaining to him the connection, but something inside of him wouldn't let him see the actual extent of his own kindness towards others.

Naru lapsed into silence again. The sound of the rocking chair became methodical and Mai felt her limbs leaden. It seemed as though she would soon drift off to sleep. Right as she was on the cusp of dozing off again, though, a small sound from Ellen drew her back from the brink of sleep. She heard her husband shift in the chair before he sighed in resignation.

"I feel compelled to warn you that your family is a bit more unorthodox than most." Mai was hard-pressed to stifle a giggle at his choice of words. "You have quite a few people who consider themselves to be your family. I will have you know that you aren't directly related to them, but, since they seem to have adopted your mother as family… You and I don't really have a choice in the matter." Mai could hear the amusement in his tone and it made a slight smile cross her face.

"I have to admit something to you, though. Their unofficial adoption of myself into their makeshift family was not an easy one. In fact, it made me somewhat upset at first. You see, your uncle and I had already been legally adopted by your grandparents. Though it was something that the two of us appreciated, it was not an easy situation to accept and it took a very long time for us to completely consider them as family. So, for me to allow a group of acquaintances to consider themselves as such was almost too much for me. I thought to myself, 'I already have a family why should I consider them family as well?'"

Naru paused for a moment to sigh. "There was a part of me that feared that I would be forced to replace the family that I already had with this new group of people. It upset me greatly and a part of me pushed them away because of it. "

Mai felt her heart falter at his words. She had always wondered about why he never classified the others as family. No matter how many times she had addressed them as so, he had never done the same. A part of her began to regret pushing the others onto him as family. If it was such a huge problem for the researcher, why had he never addressed it with her, why-

"But," his sudden voice stalled her thoughts. "I've come to realize, with your mother's help, that this rather… irregular group of people could never, and never would, replace any of the family that we already possessed. They would instead be added. It had been a difficult concept for me to fully grasp, but, after meeting you, I believe that I understand it."

There was a long silence after that and Mai was hard-pressed to hold back the tears that she wanted to shed. Many different emotions swarmed her all at once. The grief, frustration, anger, joy, and love that this conversation was eliciting within her was almost overwhelming. She wanted to leave and give her husband the privacy that he believed to have at the moment while, simultaneously, wanting to confront him with these new insights into his mind. But, before she could make a decision either way, his calm baritone voice continued forcing her to remain as she was.

"I believe that you have been visited by a majority of your family at this point. Your godparents, Lin and Madoka, were the first that you met. In all honesty I had not expected them to visit as soon as they did, I had assumed that they had kept the office open, but it turned out that they decided to close it in order to be here. They weren't allowed to see your mother or you for quite a long time, but once things were calmer they decided to stop and say hello. Don't tell them this, but I was quite grateful that they came. I don't know how well I would have fared had they not been here."

"The next group of people, who I will refer to as your Japanese family for simplicity's sake, were most excited to meet you." The amusement in his tone became quite apparent as he continued to speak. "Though I must admit that It was quite entertaining to see their faces when they realized that their surprise visit was thwarted by you being asleep. I will spare you the minute details, but you can expect that they will be back at a time when you are awake and alert."

"I will attempt to maintain some order so as to prevent them from being too loud, but that may be a vain attempt. There are quite a few characteristics that I cannot influence no matter how hard I try. Matsuzaki-san is always the loudest member of this group. Unfortunately, Monk-san has a tendency to exacerbate the situation by teasing her. At the same time Yasuhara-san likes to tease Monk-san in a manner that is most inappropriate. Thankfully there are some quite members such as Hara-san and Brown-san. But, when the whole group is together they can be quite rowdy as well. Add your mother to the mix, and it gets very loud."

Indignation filled his wife at the last statement. And, for the umpteenth time since her awakening, Mai felt the urge to interject her opinion into the private conversation. She found that it took all of her self-restraint to not dignify him with a response.

"Though they are quite loud, I suppose they all have a few redeeming qualities. They are all quite intelligent in their own way and each is very protective of those that they care about. I would say that you are quite lucky to have so many people who care about you. Though your mother and I are not as lucky since they will more than likely spoil you far more than you should be." The child made a small cooing noise that seemed to contradict her father's statement. Mai could easily imagine him rolling his eyes before carrying on with the conversation.

"It might be difficult for you to fathom, but there are a few more members of your family that you will be meeting soon. You arrived earlier than we had planned so I hope that you will forgive their tardiness. You will not have to wait much longer, though. They, your grandparents, should be arriving later today. Lin and Madoka will be picking them up from the airport." I told them to take them to our house first to allow them to rest. I a have suspicion, though, that your grandmother will insist to come here immediately."

"Even with all of these people in your life who you have met and will meet, there is one uncle who you'll unfortunately never meet." At this point, Mai could hear his tone thicken with emotion. She felt her hands clench. They had not quite decided on how they would broach this had been an important person who would always be missed. Though he had stuck around after his death for quite a long time, he had eventually left. They had known he would for as long as they knew about his situation, but that didn't make his parting any easier for those that loved him. Especially for his surviving twin brother.

"His name was Gene. He was my twin brother. He… Isn't here any longer. But, I know that he would have loved to have met you. In fact, I'm sure that, if he were still around, he would have been the first one at the hospital to meet you. And, he most certainly would have snuck in after visiting hours to try to play with you. " The exhausted woman felt a small smile spread across her face at the idea of Gene trying to get past the nurses to sneak a peek at the young girl.

Mai found that she couldn't pretend to be asleep any longer. Though many years had gone by since Gene's passing, she knew that the loss still troubled him deeply. When they were younger, after they had cleared the air between them, the woman had promised that she would help him bear the grief. It was still a task that he struggled with, but she would always be determined to not allow him to attempt to deal with the grief alone. Again.

With some effort, the brunette opened her eyes and saw Naru sitting in the rocking chair, little Ellen cradled gently in his arms. The sight momentarily took her breath away. She could tell by how he was uncharacteristically hunched over that he was exhausted as well, but there was an air about him that was far more content than she had ever seen him. Moments later she felt his eyes take note of her wakefulness and his posture changed in an attempt to mask his exhaustion. Mai gave him a little wave and he nodded to her before standing carefully and coming to the side of her hospital bed. Wordlessly, he deposited the baby into Mai's arms. She smiled at the small bundle in her arms as he sat beside her.

"She has been awake for a while now. It appeared as though she only wanted company, so I did not think that I should wake you." He paused to give her a critical look. "Though, I believe that you have been awake for a while now." Mai met his suspicious look with a sheepish smile.

"I didn't want to interrupt…" He let out a slightly annoyed sigh. Mai felt a small hand grab at her hospital clothes, effectively drawing her attention back down to the newborn in her arms. Gently she traced her daughter's face with the hand that was not supporting her.

"Besides, she likes to hear her father talk."

"Mai. She's a newborn she couldn't possibly know-"

"She wasn't once fussy while you were talking to her." Mai turned to give him a pointed look. "I believe that is substantial enough evidence in favor of her liking the sound of your voice at the very least." Naru shook his head. He opened his mouth to, undoubtedly, refute her claim, but he closed his mouth moments later. His eyes traveled from hers to rest on Ellen. A small soft smile spreading across his face.

"That may be. But, it appears as though her mother's voice puts her to sleep." Mai's hand paused and she looked down to see her daughter's eyes closed and her breathing evening out.

"I suppose it has," she said, her voice much quieter than it was previously. As she took in the small person in her arms, Mai found herself entranced. Many of Ellen's features reflected her own, as everyone had told her. But, as she looked over her daughter, she found that there were many of Naru's features there as well. A small smile spread across her face as she saw his stern jaw and the shape of his nose.

Mai's musings were broken as she felt the bed shift as her husband sat beside her. An arm encircled her before it gently guided her to lean against him. He then slid an arm below hers, helping to support the arm holding their daughter. Though she was quite light, Mai had quickly discovered that she could become heavy after only a short amount of time. She let out a relieved sigh as the strain in her arm began to ease.

"Thank you," she said softly as she allowed herself to relax against him. She found that the many thoughts that had been swirling in her mind began to quiet. A part of her wanted to discuss everything that she had overheard, but she choose to file them away instead. For now, Mai allowed herself to lapse into a rather comfortable silence.

There would be plenty of time to talk later.

* * *

Thank you so much for reading! I wrote this for the Ghost Hunt Exchange weekend over on Tumblr. If you want to look at all of the other works that people came up with go and search for gh-exchange on tumblr and you'll find everything! Some people wrote a one-shot like I did while others wrote multi-chaptered pieces as well as edits and pictures. Everyone did a really good job so go and give them some love, too!

Let me know what you think! I don't normally write pieces that rely mostly on dialogue, so I'd love to know how it came out. ^.^

[4/16/16 Update:] Ah! Thank you guys so much for the faves/follows and wonderful reviews! I would also like to apologize for taking a while to reply. The site wasn't displaying the reviews properly so I couldn't respond to them or view isn't really any more to this piece, but a guest reviewed and asked a question that I thought I'd address.

Guest: I liked this! I noticed you said many years had gone by since Gene's passing, and I was wondering if you could let us know in an AN just how many years it's been?

Well, Guest, first off I'm glad you enjoyed this! I hadn't given it a lot of thought while writing, but I always imagined Mai and Naru waiting quite a while before they got together and then even longer to have a child. This would mean that this would probably be about 10-15 years after Gene's death. I can't pinpoint exactly, but I hope that this answers your question!

Again thank you all for reading! Your reviews really mean the world to me.


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